This invention relates to apparatus and methods for packaging smoking articles such as cigars, cigarillos and cigarettes, all of which articles will be referred to herein for simplicity as “cigarettes”.
The present invention is concerned, in particular, with a cigarette wrapping machine which forms a hinged lid, hinged side-by-side carton or pack of cigarettes wherein a first foil wrapped bundle is placed in hinged side-by-side relationship with a second foil wrapped bundle, an example of such a carton or pack being described in our co-pending application WO 2004/080844, which application is incorporated herein by reference.
WO 2004/080844 describes a smoking article blank, the blank comprising a lid portion and a base portion, the lid portion and the base portion being interconnected along a hinge line and the base portion comprising a first main panel, a second main panel and a bottom panel, each panel being defined by longitudinal side margins, the first and the second main panels each having side panels, which side panels depend from the longitudinal margins of the first and second main panels, at least one of the side panels having a side flap depending from a longitudinal margin thereof, the bottom panel having a line of perforation extending between the longitudinal margins thereof, and the side flap being connected to the adjacent side panel by a hinge line. There is also provided a plurality of inner blanks, which inner blanks may be used in combination with the above-describe smoking article blank. When erected, each inner blank is capable of enwrapping a bundle of smoking articles